Spices & artists a short story of inspiration.

Pepper, a short history of inspiration.

Throughout history, dishes and ingrediënts were an inspiration to people, and not only in the culinary sense. Let us take a quick look at some of the ways spices and fruits inspired artists.

Food has always been depicted in art, like the still lifes by the old masters or the cave paintings in Lascaux. They represented a certain symbolism or were used to convey a sense of opulence.

But some artists took the use of food in paintings to extremes. In 16th century Italy, there was this painter, called Archimboldo, who “build up” his portraits only with food and other green stuff. In his works, pears became noses, and apples and peaches passed as cheeks. Cherry red lips were just that- cherries, and some pictures even contained fish as part of the composition. Peachy, sorry- cheeky guy….

In baroque music, there was during the 16th and 17th centuries a complete subgenre dedicated solely to the joy of eating. It was a time of shortage for most, so not everybody could eat well, and (at least according to some historians) therefore these songs became very popular with the common people. Apparently, for some, if you couldn’t taste cake, at least you could sing about it, and that was satisfaction enough…

One of the best-known albums of the Beatles was called Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. To hippies, this album defined the sixties. Dressed in silly costumes, the Fab Four marched stoned as hell through the Abbey Road studios, and their adoring fans ate it as if it was manna. All I am saying is they should have stopped right there and then, but alas…

In 1963, a young singer from Japan, Kyu Sakamoto, had the only Japanese number 1hit ever in the States. The song was called Use o muite arukuo, a very recognizable, easy on the ears tune, that catches on with audiences all over the world very quickly. However, the title proved to be a little too difficult to pronounce for American deejays, who were never well known for their polyglot talents, to begin with, so they changed the title to Sukiyaki- a word that, by the way, isn’t even mentioned in the song. The fact this name of a simple dish had absolutely NOTHING to do with the song (which, despite the upbeat tune, was about a deep-felt disappointment), made no difference to them; it was -besides judo- probably the only Japanese word they ever learned…

Television had its own spicy take on foody titles, like for instance everyone’s favorite seventies sexy policewoman Pepper, played by Angie Dickinson. Her main detective skill was to detect every single stolen pepper in supermarkets and grocery stores (or something like that, the memory of this series is somewhat blurry…).  Let’s say that not very many men in those days would refuse to take a nibble at her…

French film Le Grand Bouffe was one big feast, at least according to the critics- although many of the actors theatrically choked on their meals.

Later that decade, regrettably disco was born, and this new style gave soul duo Peaches and Herb a shot at eternal fame. Reunited they sang their way to the top of the charts. American rockstar Meatloaf was in the summer of 78 an overnight sensation around the same time, and a year later, in 1979, Israël won the Eurovision song contest for the second time in a row, with Hallelujah performed by Milk and Honey. What a sweet song that was- naive, but sweet…

Let’s talk about sex now; In the eighties, lady rappers Salt ‘n’ Peppa had a few hits, and this first major female hip-hop group sold more than 15million albums over the years- and still tour to this day, something that totally escaped my attention.

Of course, a decade later, the Spice Girls kept the tradition of herbal inspiration alive during the nineties with some gusto, if only to cash in to accommodate a posh lifestyle. And to top it all off, the lovely and multitalented Spanish girls of Las Ketchup gave us the unforgettable, very moving Ketchup song…

Spices & artists a short story of inspiration.

There you have it; a short history of spices and fruits in the arts served in ten courses…